Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Long-Term Follow-Up of Central Auditory Processing After Auditory Training

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Even a mild traumatic brain injury can impair the peripheral and central parts of the auditory system. The objective was to compare the performance of individuals with mild traumatic brain injury in behavioral and electrophysiological central auditory tests before and after formal auditory training, and to verify the stability of these measures over time. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Ten 16- to 64-year-old individuals diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury underwent behavioral and electrophysiological assessment of the central auditory processing in three stages: before, right after, and six months after formal auditory training. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were observed for speech by white noise, synthetic sentence identification, sound localization, verbal sequential memory, and duration pattern tests in the assessment six months after formal auditory training. No statistically significant differences were observed between the P300 assessments, either with tone-burst or speech stimulus, in N2 and P3 latencies, and P3 amplitude. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the behavioral assessment of the central auditory processing improved, while the P300 remained stable with both stimuli, six months after completing formal auditory training. This demonstrates that auditory training has long-term benefits for people with mild traumatic brain injury.